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Spotlight

Business Intelligence Growing in Popularity in Higher Ed

11/18/2008

Well placed technology tools for information management have traditionally been a way for IT to cut costs while improving services. Business intelligence (BI) software is a good example, with more colleges and universities beginning to see better data sorting, analysis, and reporting tools as a ticket to smoother, less costly operations.

Information Builders, for example, which offers its WebFocus business intelligence and reporting tool to higher ed with specific templates tailored to education, says it has seen growth of 150 percent in its higher education business in North America over the last two years.

When implemented correctly and used well, BI tools can help get critical decision-making information to the right people with less IT intervention. A good BI tool can also clean up data, reduce inefficiencies, and streamline the process of preparing necessary reports such as those often mandated by the state.

For example, 25,000-student San Jacinto College in Harris County, Texas, recently implemented WebFocus as a better way to extract data from its SCT Banner enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. "As with many ERP systems, you can get the data in there all right, but getting it out in a meaningful way for users is somewhat of a challenge," according to Suzanne DeBlanc, director of data management at San Jacinto College.

Until recently, her 15-member team wrote and modified reports on request to meet user needs. But with WebFocus in place, administrators can do much of that themselves, choosing reports and even tweaking their own parameters in some cases to produce exactly the sets of data they want.

So far, the college has rolled out the new system to a select group of about 30 high-end users including the president and vice president, chancellor and vice chancellors--administrators who deal with issues such as demographics, student enrollments and student accounts. She plans to make additional WebFocus reports available over the next few months, DeBlanc said, and to a wider range of people. The eventual user number will be at least double the current set, she predicted. To give users quick, visual access to data, her group has also built executive and operational dashboards, and will be adding more as time goes on.


The college worked with an Information Builders' consultant for about a week on the initial installation. Another eight weeks or so of on and off consulting help followed; also helpful was a trip to an Information Builders' user conference. Her staff also did reading and training on their own, LeBlanc said. The installation, which began in May, culminated with a rollout into production near the end of August.

Learning the intricacies of a new software product can be challenging, LeBlanc said, but she's hugely enthusiastic about both the product and the process. "I'll tell you what, we're not going to be bored. We have seen the possibilities with WebFocus. We've got a lot of things to learn... [including] new ways of getting to the data and presenting the data, but it's going to be a treat over time, I think."